£50m clean mobility centre launched in Coventry

Coventry University has joined forces with German engineering services giant FEV to open a new a £50m low carbon vehicle technology facility.

Official opening of the Centre For Advanced Low-Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS) at Coventry University’s Innovation Village. Photograph by Mikey Sewell.

The Centre for Advanced Low-Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS) has been set up to harness cutting-edge academic and commercial expertise to support the development of the next generation of electric, hybrid and combustion engines.

The facility will house some of the most advanced internal combustion and electrification test bed facilities currently available in the UK, creating a dedicated resource for testing current and future powertrain solutions quickly and efficiently.

The capabilities will be available to OEMs, SMEs in the supply chain and technology partners keen to accelerate the creation of new propulsion systems for use across automotive, aerospace, marine and rail sectors.

36 new jobs will be created initially, with a number of apprentices and graduates from Coventry University already appointed.

“We have a real opportunity for the country to lead the rest of the world when it comes to developing low carbon propulsion systems and C-ALPS has a major role to play in making this happen,” explained Professor Richard Dashwood, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Coventry University.

FEV moved into the new facility – which will serve as its UK Test Centre – in January.

Commenting on his firm’s investment in the UK at a time of such uncertainty Professor Stefan Pischinger, President and CEO of FEV Group, said: “We made the decision to collaborate after the Brexit vote was taken and, despite all of the uncertainty, we see no reason to change our approach and believe the UK is amongst the most advanced in the world when it comes to developing the next generation of powertrain solutions.”

He added that the new centre will not just be concentrating on electric vehicle technology. “It’s important to understand that whilst electrification of vehicles is critical, it is not going to happen overnight and there is a journey we must go on first. There is still a role to play for the combustion engine and how we integrate hybrid technologies more effectively – alongside and not instead of new developments in electric powertrains.”

It is interesting to read that you are still looking at ICE ( Internal Combustion Engine ) technology, and not wholly on Electric Motors, as clearly the change to electric motors in electric vehicles is going to take years. To speed up the take up in electric vehicle, there needs to be a way of converting existing ICE vehicles in to hybrid vehicles at a low cost, that is to use electric power for inner city use and short distances, while still having the advantage of petrol / diesel power for higher speeds above 70 Km/Hr and when towing a load. Even if electric vehicles can increase the distance travelled on a single charge, and achieve more than 50% of new car sales, the existing number of ICE powered vehicles will still be the majority of vehicle on the road.

No, there isn’t a role to play for ICE, the time window for fossil-based engines or anything, closed at least 70 years ago. Why then? It is when CO2 concentration in the atmosphere crossed over 300 ppm, mostly due to our fossil fueled technologies and activities. Today, the level is 409 and growing dangerously towards the point of no return in Anthropocene.

The future of mobility has to be electric or other types of clean tech (real clean, not “clean diesel”).

I congratulate you for opening the center, but please do not waste one more penny on ICE, stand-alone or hybrid.